UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

1-1-2000

The challenges of opera direction

Dean Frederick Lundquist University of Nevada, Las Vegas

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Repository Citation Lundquist, Dean Frederick, "The challenges of opera direction" (2000). UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations. 1167. http://dx.doi.org/10.25669/wzqe-ihk0

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. THE CHALLENGES OF OPERA DIRECTION

by

Dean Frederick Lundquist

Associate o f Arts Ventura Community College 1995

Bachelor o f Arts University of California, Berkeley 1998

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the

Master of Arts Degree Department of Theatre Arts College of Fine Arts

Graduate College University of Nevada, Las Vegas August 2000

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Copyright 2000 by Lundquist, Dean Frederick

All rights reserved.

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Thesis Approval UND/ The Graduate College University of Nevada, Las Vegas

13 J u ly ■ 2Q00

The Thesis prepared by

Dean F. Lundquist

Entitled

The Challenges of Opera Direction

is approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Master of Arts

Examination Committee Chair

Dean of the Graduate College

ïitamination Committee M^ber

Exanunatiorr^mmittee Member j

Graduate uollege Faculty Representative

PR/1017-53. !-(Xi

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT

The Challenges of Opera Direction

by

Dean Frederick Lundquist

Dr. Julie Jensen, Examination Committee Chair Professor of Theatre University of Nevada, Las Vegas

The Challenges o f Opera Direction is an investigation of the art of the opera stage

director. In addition to a brief history of opera, the investigation includes opinions of

leading international directors. Furthermore it details directing techniques and examples

gleaned from the direction of Mozart’s The Impresario (Der Shauspieldirektor) and

Donizetti's 77ie Elixir o f Love (L'elisir d'amore) both at UNLV and an assistant directing

internship with Seattle Opera's production of Delibes's Lakme. Also included are

chapters on the art of collaborating with conductors, designers and performers.

11

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS

ABSTRACT...... ii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS...... iv

INTRODUCTION...... 1

CHAPTER 1 ...... 4

CHAPTER 2 THE ORIGINS OF OPERA ...... 4 Italian Opera ...... 4 French Opera ...... 8 German Opera ...... 12

CHAPTER 3 THE ROLE OF THE DIRECTOR...... 17

CHAPTER 4 CONCEPTUALIZATION...... 25

CHAPTERS THE CONDUCTOR...... 29

CHAPTER 6 COLLABORATION ...... 34 Set D esign ...... 34 Lighting ...... 37 The Choreographer ...... 38 The Assistant Director ...... 39 Supertitles ...... 40 Costumes ...... 41

CHAPTER 7 REHEARSAL...... 44 The Principal Singers ...... 44 The Chorus ...... 48

CHAPTERS 2U‘CENTURY OPERA ...... 52

CHAPTER 9 PERFORMANCE...... 56

BIBLIOGRAPHY...... 58

VITA ...... 59

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge those who have helped and

supported me in the creation of this work. Firstly, my examination board members, Julie

Jensen, Davey Marlin-Jones, Mark Thomsen and Joe Aldridge. Additionally, I would

like to thank Speight Jenkins of Seattle Opera as well as Stephen Terrell and Paula

Podemski as well as the UNLV Graduate Student Association for its support. I'd also

like to thank Christopher Herold, my first directing mentor back at UC Berkeley and my

father, Gary for his unending support and tireless belief in my ability.

IV

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

"People are wrong when they say opera isn't what it used to be. It is what it used to be. That's what's wrong with it." -Noel Coward, Design for Living, 1933

The opera stage director is a rather new breed of artist. Until the twentieth

century, staging opera entailed a stage manager laboriously following written instructions

from the opera's composer and librettist that were passed down from generation to

generation. The result was that there was only one Aida, one La Boheme and one

Carmen.

However, after the first World War, people like Max Reinhardt helped to fuse

opera with music theatre. The result was a combination of both theatrical and musical

elements that led to the development of a total operatic concept. Following World War

II, directors like Wieland Wagner, Wolfgang Rennert and Herbert Graf brought the

dramatic concept of opera to greater prominence. (Mansouri, 1982) Up to this point, the

dramatic concept always played second fiddle to the music. These German directors

elevated dramatic concept to the level equal to the musical concept leading to, in some

cases, the stage director becoming even more important than the conductor. (Mansouri,

1982)

Directors like Gotz Friedrich, Lotfi Mansouri, Franco Zefirelli and Peter Sellars,

because of their flair for innovative ways to communicate to a modem audience, have left

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. an indelible mark on the operatic tradition. The opera world is now more inclined to talk

about Friedrich's Wozzeck or Mansouri's Lulu, Zefirelli's Otello or Sellaris Don Giovanni

than any individual conductor's interpretation.

Because of these avant-garde directors, contemporary opera direction continues to

be an increasingly complex art form. To be successful, the director must recognize opera

as a multidimensional performing art that has the potential to affect an audience in ways

that caimot be rivaled. However, this paradigm shift has led some directors down the

path to self-indulgence and self-aggrandizement at the expense of the piece. Ultimately,

the director must remain true to the spirit of the work—he must serve the art, not make the

art his servant for conveying some other agenda. The reason for this is that the director is

responsible to not only his audience but also to the composer and the librettist who, most

likely, are not available to oversee the production.

In some ways, opera is easier to direct than straight theatre because the composer

has created a musical language which the director must be able to understand. In other

words, the director must be able to translate what the composer and librettist have created

in music and text into a three-dimensional art. If the composers are the gods of the

musical world, the director is the priest who delivers his message. One might think that

these priests of truth and beauty would necessarily come from musical backgrounds.

However, an increasing number of directors who have journeyed from the theatre have

proven to be brilliant opera directors—Peter Sellars, John Dexter, Sir Peter Hall and Peter

Brook to name a few.

Directing opera is an interpretive art wherein the director is a kind of like a priest

interpreting a holy scripture. As such, he is the visionary, conceptualist and organizer

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. who brings his own imagination, intellect and insight to a piece. As chief collaborator, he

must have some understanding and a profound appreciation for the talents of the

conductor and orchestra, designers, technical staff, principal singers, chorus and

supernumeraries. It is as if he captains a ship through a vast sea of possibility while

hoping to reach a desired destination without going adrift or running aground. His most

valuable navigational tools are his concept and technique and his knowledge of those

who came before.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER 2

THE ORIGINS OF OPERA

Italian Opera

Unlike other performing arts, opera has a clearly definable origin. To many,

opera is synonymous with Italian opera. Several key factors contributed to Italy being

the birthplace of the art form. Italian is innately a musical language because of its

emphasis of vowel soimds over consonants. Furthermore, one of the chief elements of

the Italian Renaissance was the widespread interest in classical Greek and Roman culture.

These factors led to the formation of a philosophical arts club dedicated to classical study

under the patronage of Florentine Count Giovaimi de' Bardi. This club called itself the

Camerata (from the Italian word "camera" meaning "chamber") and consisted of Ottavio

Rinuccini, a poet, Guilo Caccini and Jacopo Peri, composers and Vincenzo Galilei, a

singer-composer (and father of Galileo). (Somerset-Ward, 1998)

In 1594, Peri and Rinuccini collaborated on a hypothetical idea of classical Greek

tragedy entitled Dafne. First staged in 1598, Dafhe is considered to be the first opera

(which is a truncation o îopera in musica, or work in music). (Scherer, 1997) As a

follow-up to Dafne, Peri composed Euridice for the wedding of King Henri IV of France

and Maria de' Medici in 1600. Caccini, who by this time had become Peri's chief rival,

pirated a good deal of Peri's score and performed his version of Euridice in 1602 for a

largely unenthusiastic audience. However, one of the audience members found the novel

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. idea of setting drama to music appealing; he was the person many consider to be the

grandfather of modem opera, Claudio Monteverdi. (Scherer, 1997)

Monteverdi (1567-1643) was already an established madrigal composer and a

court musician to the Duke of Mantua. (Scherer, 1997) His first opera, Orfeo (Orpheus)

was produced in 1607 and continues to be performed even today. The reason why

Monteverdi’s operas triumphed over the efforts of the Camerata is because of his musical

inventiveness. Monteverdi improved on the monodic recitative style by combining single

voice with a bass continuo resulting in something much more timeful than his

predecessors. Monteverdi also developed rich harmonies and elaborate instrumentation

as well as the use of different instrumental color to convey character mood. Fiuthermore,

he introduced ritomelli (instrumental refrains) and a chorus accompanied by a full

orchestra. (Scherer, 1997)

Monteverdi composed a number of operas adhering to the aims of the Camerata,

chiefly that the music should serve the drama. However, after the opening of the Teatro

San Cassiano in 1637, the world's first public opera house, the vogue for operatic style

soon shifted fi"om the neo-Greek Florentine recitative to a style that was to become

known as bel canto (beautiful song) in the nineteenth century. (Scherer, 1997)

Elaborate vocal flourishes, trills and long notes accompanied by elaborate stage

machinery became the fad for opera until Christoph Willibald von Gluck (1714-1787)

returned opera to its dramatic roots. His highly influential Orfeo ed Euridice minimized

vocal embellishment in favor of a more melodic style. (Pogue, 1997) Gluck's return to

opera's dramatic roots cleared the path for his chief successor, Wolfgang Amadeus

Mozart.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Mozart's three greatest Italian operas La Nozze di Figaro (1786), Don Giovanni (1787)

and Cosi fan tutte (1790) with libretti written by Lorenzo da Ponte, mark the

abandonment of the mythological in favor of the contemporary. Broadly speaking, the

Mozart/da Ponte operas concern themselves with the relationships between the sexes.

(Scherer, 1997) Furthermore, they mark a distinctly different style that abandoned the

static da capo aria in favor of the more dramatically flexible scene. The result was a

much more highly dramatic style that halted dramatic action less frequently so that an

aria could be sung.

Mozart's tremendous impact on music and opera may have been even greater had

not his life been cut short. It was not until the emergence of Giachino Rossini (1792-

1868) that opera took another giant step forward. Rossini, one of the last great opera

seria composers, soon found his niche composing comic opera (opera buffa). Rossini's

greatest contributions are his patter songs like Figaro's "Largo al factotum," from The

Barber of Seville. Also, Rossini's use of repetition and crescendo became his trademark.

Furthermore, Rossini codified the shift from aria to scena as the building block of action.

(Scherer, 1997) Ultimately, Rossini picked up where Mozart left off and provided the

bridge to the Romantic era.

The Italian Romantic era was dominated by Vincenzo Bellini (1801-1835) and the

prolific Gaetano Donizetti (1797-1848). What these two composers accomplished was

the expression of more realistic emotions in contrast to Rossini's relative generality in the

expression of character temperament. However, the two composer's method of

composition differed greatly. Donizetti was equally adept at composing both drama and

opera buffa. Additionally, he composed a series of operas commonly referred to as "The

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Tudor Cycle" that treat on the English monarchy. Unlike Bellini, Donizetti composed

about seventy operas in his lifetime in record time. (Pogue, 1997) The common thread

throughout his greatest works like Lucia di Lammermoor (1835), Don Pasquale (1843)

and The Elixir o f Love (1832) is his brilliance at conveying the inner feelings of his

characters.

Bellini, on the other hand, chose to work much more slowly and as a result only

composed ten operas. Unlike Donizetti, Bellini tended to stick primarily to tragedy and

had his greatest success with La Sonnambula (The Sleepwalker, 1831) and Norma

(1831). Bellini's greatest talent was his knack for composing long, tender melodies that

have a nearly hypnotic effect. (Scherer, 1997)

While Donizetti and Bellini represent icons of an emotional Romantic ideal,

Guiseppe Verdi (1813-1901) made drama the lifeblood of his opera. The beauty of

Verdi's operas manifests itself in his memorable melodies and eloquence of musical

language. In contrast to Donizetti's juggernaut of an operatic canon, Verdi composed

only twenty-eight operas. However, the development of his genius is much more

apparent than is Donizetti's.

Perhaps Verdi's greatest contribution to the development of an evolving operatic

style manifests itself in the fluidity of his drama. Instead of composing orchestral

introductions and applause signaling closures, Verdi created a flowing musical idiom

wherein melodies move from passage to passage through a sustained musical profile.

(Scherer, 1997) Furthermore, Verdi's La Traviata laid the foundation for the verismo (or

realist) movement in opera because of its portrayal of contemporary bourgeois characters

in a naturalistic manner.

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However, contemporary bourgeois characters were not the impetus that fomented

a young Giacomo Puccini (1858-1924) to devote his life to composing opera. It was only

after having trudged twenty miles to Pisa for a performance o iA ida that Puccini took

such a dramatic step. (Scherer, 1997) Puccini is considered the last in a long line of

Italian masters whose work have fixed themselves permanently in the international opera

repertoire. Perhaps it is Puccini's fascination with women that assured him his place

among the masters. Characters like Mimi {La Boheme, 1896), Floria Tosca {Tosca,

1900), Cio-Cio-San {Madama Butterfly, 1904) and Princess Turandot {Turandot, 1926)

are arguably the most memorable women in all of opera. However memorable his female

creations are, one of Puccini's greatest contributions to operatic style arose fi-om his

efforts to move away from melodrama in favor of realism. La Boheme, Madama

Butterfly and II Tabarro (The Cloak, 1918) all significantly eroded the overly dramatic

stigma associated with opera and led the way into the twentieth century.

French Opera

Opera took a while to catch on in the French court of Louis XTV. The dominance

of ballet and the spoken dramas of Racine and Corneille largely prevented the art form

from flourishing. However, a young Florentine, Giovanni Battista Lulli (1632-1687)

arrived in the French court to teach Italian to the king's cousin and eventually changed the

topography of opera in France. (Scherer, 1997)

In 1661 Lulli changed his name to reflect his French nationalization and was

appointed court composer. Soon thereafter, he was collaborating with Mo here on the

first of a series of comedie-ballets. Meanwhile, Italian opera began to catch on, and in

1669 two of Lully's rivals, composer Robert Cambert and poet Pierre Perrin received

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. license to build what would eventually become the Paris Opera. (Scherer, 1997) Cambert

and Perrin collaborated on Pomone, the first full-length French opera, but soon thereafter

landed in debtor’s prison. Lully then proceeded to usurp their license and collaborate

with poet Phillipe Quinault to create Cadmus et Hermione (1673). (Scherer, 1997)

Lully set out to create an operatic style distinctly different from its Italian

counterpart. Because of dramatic import, recitatives were spoken in French rather than

sung in Italian. Additionally, the French did not share the Italian virtuoso singing

tradition, and, therefore emphasized drama over highly embellished singing. The French

had a penchant for dance resulting in the prominence of ballet and majestic orchestral

passages, furthermore, the French appreciated mammoth visual spectacle and therefore

employed elaborate stage techniques to create flying gods, sea monsters and just about

anything else one can dream of.

While Lully’s musical style can best be described as tuneful and dance-like, his

successor, Jean-Phillpe Rameau (1683-1764) created what some call a revolutionary

richness of harmony coupled with detailed instrumental color. Because of the vast

difference of musical styles, a twenty -year debate among French opera enthusiasts as to

whether Lully or Rameau had the superior style. The debate only subsided when an

Italian opera buffa troupe arrived in Paris. The proponents of the buffa style attacked

Rameau's tragic mode, and he answered their attacks with the hilarious Platee (1745) and

put an end to the arguments as to who was funnier. This "War of the Buffoons" resulted

in the creation of opera comique. (Scherer, 1997)

With his success already established in Florence, Gluck traveled to Paris where he

produced French versions of Orfeo and Alcete. Similar to the effect he had on opera in

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Italy, Gluck's reformations marked a separation into two distinctly different styles of

French opera. The first, opera or tragédie lyrique focused on classic plots, included sung

récitatif and emphasized scenic spectacle. The other, opera comique, featured lighter

plots, spoken dialogue and interspersed songs and arias.

Following Gluck's reformation, the next major advance in the world of French

opera was the creation of grand opera. Championed by composers like Giacomo

Meyerbeer (1791-1864) and Hector Berlioz (1803-1869), the state-subsidized opera

continually proliferated and expanded the old ideas of Lully. French grand opera

reflected the mid-nineteenth century fascination with Gothic, Renaissance and Rococo

design which manifested itself in set design and furnishings. Great pains were taken to

create three-dimensional scenery that was historically accurate. Grand opera abandoned

plots based on classical mythology in favor of medieval and Renaissance history.

Furthermore, operas took place in four or five acts and fi-equently climaxed with some

spectacular catastrophe, i.e. volcanic eruptions, explosions, battles or auto-de-fe.

Additionally, adding to grand opera's spectacle and appeasing the French public's love of

dance, grand opera included at least one ballet sequence and often times several. Because

of the Paris Opera's reputation of having the finest orchestra in the world, grand operas

were composed for huge orchestras and included stage bands as much as possible.

Finally, grand opera employed large casts of solo singers as well as a massive chorus and

supernumeraries for festival, prayer and battle scenes.

Grand opera was primarily an outgrowth of tragédie lyrique, but opera comique

continued to expand as well. The wide gap created between grand opera and opera

comique facilitated the birth of opera lyrique. Lyric opera treated tragic plots but still

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maintained spoken dialogue. However, many composers later opted to set spoken text to

music and convert it into récitatif. The chief opera lyrique composer was Charles

Gounod (1818-1893) whose most popular works include Faust (1859), based on Goethe's

epic poem, and Romeo and Juliet (1867).

One of the most influential of Gounod's contemporaries was Georges Bizet (1838-

1875). Bizet's greatest contribution to the opera world is undoubtedly Carmen (1875).

What is so innovative about Carmen is that it is the tale of common people, overwrought

passions and violence. As such. Carmen was an early precursor of Italian verismo.

regarded today as one of the all-time greatest operas, it is difficult to conceive that the

opera flopped when it was first performed. Apparently, the Theatre de I'Opera Comique

was a middle-class rendezvous who took objection to Carmen's torrid ways and the

opera's violent end. (Pogue, 1997)

Opting not to infuriate his public, Jules Massenet (1842-1912) found that blending

Gounod's eroticism with Wagnerian symphonic principles created delicacies that delight

the French palate. Operas like Herodiade (1881),Manon (1884) andThais (1894) all

have female sexuality at their core. But Massenet was also adept at composing more than

just tales of lust. Werther based on Goethe's novel reflects the romantic ideal,

and Don Quichotte (1910) demonstrates Massenet's skill at composing comic opera.

(Scherer, 1997)

Rebelling against Massenet's crowd-pleasing musical style, Claude Debussy

(1862-1918) and Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) abandoned memorable melodies in favor

of a Symbolistic and Impressionistic musical style. However, in the midst of mid­

twentieth century dissonance, Francis Poulenc (1899-1963) composed in a somewhat old-

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fashioned musical style. His Dialogues o f the Carmelites (1957) has become the most

frequently performed French opera composed after World War II. (Scherer, 1997)

German Opera

George Fridric Handel (1685-1759) was one of the first and arguably the best of

the early composers of the Hamburg Goosemarket Theatre. Goosemarket was the first

permanent opera house in Germany that presented operas written by Germans with

German libretti. However, after cutting his teeth in Hamburg, Handel travels to Italy to

refine his craft and then on to London where he continued to prosper under the

sponsorship of King George I. (Somerset-Ward, 1998)

Although Handel's roots were German, he composed primarily in Italian while

living in England. Hamburg, without royal sponsorship, had to cater to the tastes of a

middle-class audience who demanded opera in their native language. The result was the

Singspiel (songplay). Like French opera comique, Singspiel was primarily comic and

employed spoken dialogue interspersed with song. (Scherer, 1997)

Mozart was perhaps the greatest Singspiel composer with works like Der

Shauspieldirektor {The Impresario) and Die Zauberflote {The Magic Flute, 1791).

Commissioned by fellow Mason and public theatre owner Emannuel Shikaneder, The

Magic Flute marked the first time Mozart composed for the public rather than the crown.

The result was most successful run of any of his operas during his lifetime—197

performances and it remains a perennial favorite. (Scherer, 1997)

After Mozart's death. Romanticism soon started to infiltrate the world of German

opera. Structurally, Romanticism is marked by a departure from single-mood da capo

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arias in favor of arias with contrasting moods, tempi and form. The revolutionary ideals

of Romanticism appealed to composers like Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) who

only composed one opera, Fidelio (1814) which he re-wrote some fourteen times.

(Pogue, 1997) The end result dramatized a universal philosophy that is not the archetypal

German Romantic opera. (Scherer, 1997)

More the paradigm, Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826) composed Der Freishutz

(The Free Shooter) which premiered in 1821. A serious Singspiel, Der Freishutz is

based on German legend and concerns itself with German folk life. Der Freishutz also

serves as an example of the desire for German composers to break free of Italian operatic

influence. Weber’s opera included all the key elements o f this Germanic identity: nature,

the supernatural, folk culture and legend. However, some German composers desired to

create a form that included sung recitative in lieu of spoken dialogue and a lengthier more

continuous dramatic texture. (Scherer, 1997)

This desire for a German musical identity coupled with a reformative approach to

composition proved to be fertile ground for the genius of Richard Wagner (1813-1883).

By 1843, the opera world was being dominated by the music of Rossini, Donizetti and

Meyerbeer. In contrast with their relatively simple and short scenes, Wagner composed

The Flying Dutchman with richer harmonies, disturbingly moving melodies with scenes

of unprecedented length. For all its innovations. The Flying Dutchman is still, in many

ways Italianate. In 1849, Wagner wrote "The Artwork of the Future" wherein he details

his desire to create a "complete work of art" (Gesamtkunstwerk). In his return to the aims

of the Camerata, Wagner set out to define muisc drama where poetry, music, song, drama

and the visual arts combined to create a unified whole. (Somerset-Ward, 1998)

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Lohengrin (1850) begins to reflect Wagner's desire for musical continuity. It

begins to erode the Italian form of numbers linked by recitative. By 1865, his Tristan

und Isolde demonstrate Wagner's goal of creating an "endless melody " where the action

never takes a pause for applause until the end of the acts. (Scherer, 1997)

Because of Wagner's desire to create a unified whole, he opted to write his own

libretti and even established his own Festival Theatre in Bayreuth. A revolutionary

theatre, the Bayreuth auditorium was constructed with a fan-like seating arrangement

instead of the traditional horseshoe design. The result was clearer site lines and superior

acoustics. Furthermore, Wagner covered the orchestra pit in an attempt to balance the

sound of voices with the orchestra. Perhaps even more significantly, Wagner bucked the

social tradition of leaving the house lights on during performance. By darkening the

auditorium, he effectively forced audiences to pay attention to what was happening on

stage. (Pogue, 1997)

As well as turning the social traditions of opera going on their ear, Wagner also

upturned the traditional emphasis on what amounted to vocally "showing off." He

dispensed with cadenzas and embellishments in favor of complementary orchestral

sound. Additionally, he used the orchestra to convey the inner psychological life of

characters and events with his series of "leitmotifs." His momentous composition of The

Ring o f the Nibelung, a series of four operas, marks the most ambitious composition of

any composer to date. After working on it for more than twenty years, its completion

was the realization of music drama as a synthesis of all the arts. This concept along with

Wagner's blurred chromatic harmonies, eventually led to the breakdown of classical

tonality and therefore ushered in the twentieth century. (Scherer, 1997)

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One of assistants, Engelbert Humperdinck (1854-1921) incorporated Wagner’s

symphonic and thematic complexities with the melodic style of German folk music in his

Hansel and Gretel. While superficially a children's story, it is an example of the

offspring of Wagnerian music drama theory. Another child of Wagnerian theory,

Richard Strauss (1864-1949) created deeply psychologically disturbing operas like

Salome (1905). It's original production was declared immoral and caused such a scandal

on it's premiere at the Metropolitan Opera in 1907 that J.P. Morgan, the lease holder of

the opera house, forbade any future performances. With his reputation as an iconoclastic

composer firmly secured, Strauss embarked on the creation oîE lektra (1909). It's

incestuous implications combined with explosion and lyricism was, according to Strauss,

"the extreme limits of...what ears today can accept." (Scherer, 1997)

After Elektra, Strauss adopted a more classical approach in Der Rosenkavalier

(1911) and Ariadne auf Naxos (1912). Although these two operas are perhaps the most

frequently performed of his works, Strauss's earlier works, marked by their atonality,

impacted composers Alban Berg(l 885-1935) and Kurt Weill (1900-1950). (Pogue, 1997)

Berg composed only two operas: Wozzeck {\925) based on the play by Georg

Buchner and Lulu (1935) based on two plays by Frank Wedekind (which was left

unfinished at his death). Both works are dark, atonal and episodic. Additionally, both

operas feature the Spechgesang singing style which is kind of half-way between singing

and speaking. The result of this drastically different style is opera that largely resembles

drama with incidental music ala film scores. Because of its radical subject matter and

atonality, the Nazi government labeled the operas "degenerate art" and forbid their

performance. (Scherer, 1997)

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Between the wars, Kurt Weill began collaborating on an updated version of John

Gay's The Beggar’s Opera with playwright Bertold Brecht. Their version. D ie

Dreigroschenoper {The Threepenny Opera,1928) translated the tail into I920's Berlin and

naturally reflected popular contemporary musical. As a result. The Threepenny Opera is

usually performed in musical theatre settings rather than in the opera house. Weill

explains this phenomenon: 'T write for today. 1 don't give a damn about posterity."

(Scherer, 1997) However, another collaboration with Brecht, Rise and Fall o f the City of

Mahagonny (1930) definitely has its place in the opera house.

Speight Jenkins, General Director of Seattle Opera says it best when asked, "What

is an opera?" He answered, "An opera is an opera if the composer called it an opera."

(Jenkins, 1998) As one can see by this brief chronology of the development of the art

form, there are numerous developments and divisions of sub-genres. What is important

for the director to know is the style o f the piece—that is the logic of the work. He must

understand the structure of the opera (or Singspiel or operetta) in order to direct it,

because each style makes different demands as to how it should be staged.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. CHAPTER 3

THE ROLE OF THE DIRECTOR

Modem stage directors are often regarded as visionaries, conceptualists,

interpreters or re-inventors, however, it is still difficult to define the opera stage director's

job, or the aspects of performance for which he can rightfully take credit. Some directors

attempt to assume responsibility for the intellectual content of the work, which

undoubtedly would surprise the composer and librettist. In fact, the opera director,

working in an unchangeable musical framework, has less control over the ultimate shape,

structure and meaning of the piece than a film director, who can cut dialogue, eliminate

characters and sub-plots and change the order of scenes to tell his own version of the

story.

Some directors charge the conductor with total responsibility for all the audience

hears while claiming everything it sees-much to the chagrin of set, costume, make-up and

lighting designers. The director’s contribution has become so difficult to pinpoint

because of the modem theatre's emphasis on collaboration. Opera production is a team

effort requiring the talents of designers, singers, musicians, conductor and an

administrative staff without whom a director's creativity cannot be an influence or

possibly even materialize. Gotz Friedrich encapsulates the essence of theatrical

collaboration: "My ideas are filtered before they come to the audience-a thousand times,

by everybody I work with. I may have a strong idea in the beginning, but it is filtered-

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sometimes corrupted, sometimes developed." (Harries, 1986) When teams of artistic

collaborators change, so do the stimuli and also the director's influence. Opera directors

sometimes reflect this desire for change in a constant search for fresh collaborators-a

particularly vital source of inspiration when frequently confronted with having to stage

operas they have directed multiple times.

Because the director contributes to a production on a plethora of levels, defining

and assessing his qualities often times is difficult. At the core, the director is responsible

for translating what is on the page into movement on the stage, coordinating what

happens physically as much at the conductor co-ordinates what happens musically.

However, on a more profound level, the director acts as an interpreter, offering his own

"spectacles" through which to view the piece. In lending his vision, he inevitably offers a

statement of the work and a comment on it. Michael Billington, theatre critic for The

Guardian comments on this later aspect of the modem director: "Peter Hall was the

visionary who changed the face of things by putting great emphasis on meaning. You

don't just dmm up another Madam Butterfly or Rigoletto, you ask what the work is about

and try to get the meaning across to the audience." (Harries, 1986)

In offering his understanding of "meaning," the director may sacrifice the

intentions of the creators. At one extreme is the concept that direction should be confined

to realizing what the composer had in mind. In some extreme cases, productions have

become virtual exhumations: original sets, designs, costumes, props and movement. Such

a production of Aida was mounted in Venice in 1983. This type of re-creation would

probably have delighted Verdi who rejected the notion that every performance should be

a fresh creation: "This is a principle that leads to exaggeration and artificiality. 1 want to

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have one single creator, and all 1 ask is that what is written down shall be performed

simply and accurately." (Harries, 1986)

Ironically, Verdi seemingly contradicts his "single creator" precept in that three of

his most performed operatic creations (Otello, Macbeth and Falstaff) are virtual lessons

in creative inspiration. Written by Shakespeare, the texts where then adapted into Italian

and set to music. These are, in essence, re-inventions of Shakespeare plays. Prohibiting

the director his interpretation suppresses the very type of creativity that Verdi used to

compose these works. The fallacy of undertaking such a historically authentic production

is the inevitable creation of a "museum piece" that lacks "meaning" for a contemporary

audience.

For both purist and practical reasons, adherence to the composer’s instructions

should, theoretically, enable the director to serve the spirit of the work. This re-staging

approach is not uncommon in larger American opera houses where, in an attempt to

satisfy the appetites of an opera devotuing public, the modem impresario must serve up a

steady diet of opera classics in short order. The re-staging process allows directors a

common foundation on which he can quickly build in short rehearsal periods that may be

as short as a few days.

Nonetheless, most directors vigorously argue against re-creating the past.

Personal experience of the present affects the way we view the past-Peter Brook: "It is

rare for a historian of a philosopher to escape from the influence of his time, and for the

worker in the theatre, whose livelihood depends on his contact with his audience, this is

impossible. Consequently, however hard [a director] may strive to mount a classic with

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complete objectivity, he can never avoid reflecting a second period-the one in which he

works and lives." (Harries, 1986)

One of the most outspoken crusaders against theatrical recreation is Peter Sellars.

Rather than re-create an opera or play in its original style, Sellars has transposed his

theatrical creations in the vernacular of the twentieth century. Part of his reason for this

approach is his belief that it makes it easier for perfomiers to express the composer’s

original ideas: "They can feel free to do things that they understand completely, rather

than existing in some nether world which they’re pretending to understand. By the time

they've exhausted themselves in the effort of imagination of what it was like to live in the

sixteenth century, they have little mental space left for the primary issues of the play."

(Harries, 1986) As a by-product, the audience finds these issues easier to ingest: "I think

a very important fimction of the drama is to operate in images that are so immediately

buried in the audience’s daily experience that there's not that initial leap that has to be

made to get at the material. Frequently operas are written in code. They are written in a

code that a pervious audience has understood, both in terms of a musical language and

also in terms of a series of images. Our task is to crack the code, and recast it in systems

of reference that have the same heightened possibility of meaning and connection to a

sense of national, historic and individual identity for today’s public." (Harries, 1986)

Some of Sellars's twentieth century interpretations include Lear complete with a

Lincoln Continental, Cosi fan tutte set in a 1930’s diner, an Orlando with action divided

between Cape Canaveral and outer space and Don Giovanni set in Spanish Harlem with

Giovanni portrayed as a drug pusher who eventually is sucked down into a hellish sewer

by a chorus of topless women. However, "updating ” opera is a practice Sellars despises:

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"I hate updating as a gambit, I resent it actively-it's cheap and vulgar and obnoxious and

not the point. My productions are never updated." (Harries, 1986)

Sellars's productions are decidedly post-modern combining diverse ideas where

different periods, contexts and cultures coexist: "It's the old Eisenstein thing-we work by

montage. By juxtapositions, combined with a ferocious exactitude, you can have two

ideas which you get at terribly precisely, and by putting them next to each other, a

chemical reaction results which is extremely stimulating and puts a number of other ideas

into the air. It's building up these little detonator points.. to set up a visual counterpoint."

(Harries, 1986) His visual counterpoints include aspects ofNoh drama, television and

contemporary politics. One might find these elements incongruous, but Sellars maintains

that they are like puzzle pieces left for the audience to assemble: "I leave huge room in

my productions for the audience to enter and participate. What they bring to the theatre is

three quarters of it. If you have a hundred readings, you know you have something

truthful. The minute you have one reading, you have something fascistic." (Harries,

1986)

Sellars has received a great deal of criticism for straying too far fi-om the original,

but he maintains that he is only attacking the nonessential-not the piece’s intellectual and

emotional core: "Why does a composer go to all this trouble of writing an opera? Not,

ultimately, because of preoccupations with a certain style or a predilection for certain

types of costumes. The central issue is always subject matter. I don't care what period a

production is set in....What I care about is that the things which are happening between

those people are happening and they could be happening in any other set. . .I invite all

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this materialism on stage to its funeral.. to break down finally the lie that anybody's life

is based on what they're wearing or the furniture they're sitting on." (Harries, 1986)

Sellars sees himself as a second-class creator whose aim is to serve the work. His

tools for doing so simply have a sharper edge than those who are more conservative.

Even Sellars will not completely scrap the directions of the composer when it comes to

entrances and exits as well as other on-stage business. As Johnthan Miller notes, there

are stage directions appended to the libretto and those are built into the score. This is

where a director who listens for stage directions can seem like a genius: "When Susanna

exits the closet in Figaro, there's a moment when the music builds up to a tension and

then quite suddenly there's a change in tempo and she comes out.. .If you listen to what

Mozart is actually saying, not what he or his librettist writes in the score as stage

directions, but what he actually writes in the notes, you can generally tell when someone

must turn, when someone must enter, when someone must embrace." (Harries, 1986)

This is not to say that there is only one prescribed piece of action for a given piece

of music. In the Elixir o f Love, there exists a couple of little filigrees just before

Nemorino slurps down his bottle of wine that sound an awful lot like trickling liquid.

However, while working on Laknie, there is a section just after the ballet begins which

sounds markedly different from the rest of the ballet. Director Stephen Terrell used this

music to draw focus to the principals. He went to far as to improvise lyrics that were

actually mnemonic stage directions. This is an excellent technique which often can seem

quite humorous to the performers. In that instance, there was an exchange between Miss

Rose and Mistress Benson wherein Terrell directed, "She says come here. Rose says uh-

uh. Then she goes upstage and brings her downstage. " What this demonstrates is that

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composers do not always have a clear image of what might be happening onstage. There

was no direction in the libretto to suggest the preceding bit of business. It is up to the

director to provide interpretation. Every production of Lakme will probably interpret this

moment a little differently which is how it should be according to Elijah Moshinsky: "If

opera is to be alive.. .it has to be what Shakespeare has become at the Royal Shakespeare

Company—you can perform Much Ado five times in five different ways, and each time it

becomes another fragment of the endless meaning of the play." (Harries, 1986)

When departing fi-om traditional interpretations, what is crucial is developing a

metaphor that lies at the work's center. The metaphor is the audience's window to

understanding. Gotz Friedrich maintains that as a director, "You have to recognize that

you're not playing the opera for the time it was written." (Harries, 1986) Because of this,

the time that has passed since the work's creation has written it or at least co-written it.

Therefore, producing an "unfaithful" version of cannot happen unless we accept a single

objective existence of the work. Most might consider the original production to be this

type of paradigm. However, with any performance art, be it a play, ballet or opera, it

only truly exists in performance which can never be repeated with flawless exactitude.

Recognizing that each director invents and re-invents his own aesthetic, it is

impossible to make too many generalizations. However, crammed program notes seem

like a director excusing himself for creating a concept that is too obscure for the general

public. Furthermore, to do so would seem to defy an audience's expectations.

Nevertheless, some credit the imaginative impact of the director for keeping opera alive

and enabling it to thrive. Wieland Wagner put the rise of the director into its proper

perspective: "Have [the older generation] not grasped what difficulties are involved in

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maintaining the operatic stage against these new mass media [radio, television and

cinema] and in keeping them alive in the changed social conditions of today? The

increased importance [of the director] is certainly attributable to this necessity." (Harries,

1986)

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CONCEPTUALIZATION

The definition of "conceptualization" differs from one director to another. To

some it may involve a whole system of religious, philosophical, social, political, literary

or artistic schemas. To others it may be as nebulous as the determination to stage the

work in modem dress or envisioning the setting as outdoors rather than indoors. To

Ronald Eyre it is "a matter of finding a little way into a work which isn't an arbitrary

expression of self-satisfaction or self aggrandizement... it is some little series of keys with

which you can open the doors that are already put there in the music and libretto."

(Harries, 1986) However, a director's conceptualization may not be fully formulated

prior to rehearsal commencement. Some directors use the rehearsal process to find their

'fix' on the work. But most directors, on some level, must have some grasp on a work to

serve as a port from which to depart on the artistic journey.

Hans Werner Henze wrote, "The real [director] is always the same, namely the

musical score," and some directors derive their operatic concept chiefly from music. One

might expect that Sir Peter Hall, given his penchant for 'textual seriousness', might work

chiefly from the libretto. But for Hall, the music is the text: "The primary expression that

the audience receives is musical, not verbal. I have the same feelings towards the music

in opera as towards the text in literature." (Harries, 1986)

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Other directors, such as David Poutney, chose a different emphasis: "The

motivation of the music is on the stage and not the other way around. It is drama though

music, not music through drama." (Harries, 1986) However, this in no way advocates an

approach of simply directing the libretto. Moreover, the libretto must be examined

within the context of the music and can serve as a source of directorial inspiration as well

as being the touchstone for research into the opera's historical, personal and literary

background-the chief elements of preparation.

Historical background may guide a director to examine the historical context of

the work. Colin Graham articulates his approach in such cases: "I do as much historical

work as I possibly can then find out about the conditions of life at the time, all facets of

life. Then compute all that with what the composer and librettist have done, find out

what choices they have made and what emphases they are making? The composers are

very interested in what happens to the characters at the moment of a particular event, but

not terribly interested in the historical aspect of what was really happening in the country

at the time? Inevitably, the composer will go for the emotional impact of a story's

director and designer, you can point these things up with a social and historical context."

(Harries, 1986)

Such was the case in directing The Impresario and The Elixir o f Love. In the case

of the former, I chose a modem context to convey what I thought was Mozart's core

theme of "art will survive regardless of individual ego. " In the latter, changing the

historical context to an 1930 Louisiana farm served to highlight the socio-economic and

racial differences between protagonist and antagonist which are eventually overturned by

the power of love. Contrarily, the historical context of a Victorian Raj India, rejects this

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romantic ideal by stating that love cannot defy socio-economic, religious and cultural

disparity.

While researching the historical background of the setting may prove to be fertile

for a director's imagination, the historical background of the composition may yield a

greater cornucopia of imaginative fruit. Gotz Fredrich maintains that the milieu of the

composition must be taken into account: "It is first of all necessary to read what

composer and librettist have written, and to study what it meant in that time in terms of

its social implications, their artistic aims, any personal relevance it may have had for

them...Every artistic work is a combination of the subjective and the objective—in the

subjective expression you find a mirror for the objective circumstances of the time."

(Harries, 1986)

This subjective/objective approach can eventually lead a director to try and

convey the revealing aspects o f the time the opera was composed as well as the time in

which the opera is set. The result is a kind of telescoping vision wherein the audience

peers through its own time at the composer's era looking at an even more distant period.

One directing technique employed with increasing frequency to achieve this effect is to

have the chorus costumed as an on-stage audience contemporary with the composer.

Occasionally, the circumstances of the composer or librettist's life can provide for

the basis for conceptualization. Understanding that Die ZauberfJote (The Magic Flute) is

a veiled Masonic ritual for which Mozart is rumored to have been secretly murdered

could prove useful for the director. Similarly, Da Ponte, Mozart's librettist fo r Don

Giovanni may have been inspired by his close relationship to Cassanova or by his own

well-documented series of failed marriages and relationships. (Pogue, 1997)

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More often, however, opera is based on an existing work that can provide plethora

of ideas. One technique advocated by Ande Anderson, is to return to the source after

having studied the score and libretto to discover, "which part of the source he has caught

in which passage of the opera: why he has written this phrase in this way over these

words." (Harries, 1986) The pitfall of doing so is an inclination to want to include certain

aspects that did not survive the adaptation to opera. However, knowing the source,

having studied it and being influenced by it can often serve as the compass that at least

points the direction of the artistic journey.

Conceptualization is the road map the director uses to navigate the

production. In order to translate metaphor into theatrical reality, effectively communicate

with designers, convey the emotional core of the work, and ultimately arrive at the

desired creative destination, a director must rely on his conceptualization.

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THE CONDUCTOR

According to Francis Hodge, "Opera, no matter how it is staged, is always a

musical event, and it is the conductor who is in charge of the total production." (Hodge,

1988) However, with the advent of the modem director as conceptualist and hub for

collaboration, some directors beg to differ with Hodge's view.

Lotfi Mansouri describes the perfect director/conductor collaborative relationship

as one where the director and conductor are like one mind with two bodies. However,

this is rarely the case. Director Jonathan Miller believes, "[Directing] simply is a highly

expert job., j ust as complicated as the job of the conductor. I like conductors to recognize

that." (Harries, 1986) Some conductors have attempted to direct and conduct

simultaneously. However, the technical aspects of the modem theatre combined with the

demands of an orchestra usually would prohibit a conductor from doing so. It would

seem unlikely that a conductor could devote enough attention to the stage while still

conducting an orchestra.

Furthermore, as Raymond Leppard demonstrates, few conductors have the type of

technical training a director needs: "I haven't got any technique of stage direction. . . .I

have a musical theatrical instinct, but I don't have a movement theatrical instinct. I can

look at a stage action and see that something is wrong, but I can't analyze what it is.

Whereas I can analyze if a fiddler plays in a certain way-I can say. Either take three bows

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to articulate that or do a different fingering’...! can reduce that to a technical lingo, which

a pro must use in any profession." (Harries, 1986)

Conductor Claudio Abbado also recognizes the necessity of the director: "I

sometimes have ideas about being a producer, but I've promised myself never to do it. I

think with a good producer you can always find something better. Like using a soloist for

a symphony solo-I can play the piano, I was a pianist, but with a good pianist you can

find something better. The director, the soloist—I know they know better than me. I may

suggest things to the director, and if he likes it-good. With collaboration you can always

find something better for the music and the opera. " (Harries, 1986) Finding something

better through collaboration should be the aim of a healthy conductor/director

relationship.

In some cases, the conductor will utilize the director as a catalyst for musical

interpretation. Conductor Mark Elder describes what he wants fi-om a director: "Really

what I'm asking a director to do. . . is to tell me how they want every line inflected; I want

a play-reading with the director really. What I'm interested in working with the singers

on is clarity of intention, thought, color, text.. getting them to color the words, getting

them beyond the crotchets and quavers and the complexities of the music in to the

thought behind the music." (Harries, 1986)

In the most productive collaborations, there is an interplay between the two

artists. In such optimal case scenarios, when the director and conductor are comfortable

working with each other, they can assist each other productively without bruising each

others egos. Conductor Colin Graham feels, "The conductor’s perfectly within his rights

to say, i really feel the scene should flow and build to this great climax, and what you're

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doing is splitting it up into little sharp movements." (Harries, 1986) He should be able to

see that and feel free to tell you-just as [the director] should be able to say, "If you really

take it as slowly as that, then the audience will have forgotten what the last word is before

you get to the next one and we've lost the flow and the wonderful tautness of it, you're

dissipating it." (Harries, 1986)

What a director needs to realize is that the action, décor, lighting and everything

else that appears on the stage must appear as a function of the music. Carlo Maria Guilini

blames the mass media for a director neglecting this precept: "This generation is getting

all its intellectual experiences only through looking....Television and the cinema have

affected the young [directors], who now pander more to actions than to anything else.

They have forgotten that in opera actions have to be done to music. The visual part has

become so important that the music of Traviata, for example, becomes like movie music-

a comment, not the central issue." (Harries, 1986)

The central issue of any opera should always be the dramatic imperative.

However, because of the style of opera, some directors neglect this concept and find

certain pieces as "undramatic." Conductor James Levine explains: "[If a director believes

that] performing a certain cabaletta in a Verdi opera is undramatic, my answer should be

that Verdi was a man of the theatre par excellence, and knew more about the theatre than

a hundred of you. Your job is not to change it but to make it work." (Harries, 1986)

As every director who has come from the theatre to the opera house discovers,

"making it work" will inevitably entail staging singers so that they can see the conductor

while still pursuing some sort of objective. As conductor Julian Smith explains:

"Directors want singers to go upstage with a marvelous exit-and the conductor needs their

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eyes to take them off the final note." (Harries, 1986) A director who is also trained as a

musician can recognize this in a score, but even the most astute director could miss it. In

a productive director/conductor collaboration, during the musical rehearsals (where a

director is not usually required to attend) a director can call on the conductors expertise in

these types of situations.

Frequently, as was the case in Seattle, conductors earn a reputation for conducting

certain operas or operas in a particular style. Maestro Patrie Foumillier had conducted

the opera on three previous occasions in Europe. This type of experience can prove

invaluable to a director who chooses to draw on it. For example, the conductor usually

knows where the applause comes and where singers need to be to see him and still sing.

In one instance, during the staging of the second act of Lakme, there is a musical entrance

of a group of sailors. The Maestro expressed a concern in that the director had them

positioned upstage right on a small flight of stairs. The potential problem was that they

would not be able to see the conductor nor would they be able to hear the orchestra fi-om

such a position. In this instance, the director's judgement was right, and his refusal to

change the staging proved to be a moot point.

However, in another instance, the collaboration sort of broke down. At the

culmination of the first act duet between Lakme and Gerald, director Stephen Terrell had

blocked the singers to embrace as if they were about to kiss. Immediately thereafter,

Lakme notices her father coming from off in the distance and the kiss is abandoned.

When Gerald finally departs, he runs back to Lakme and passionately kisses her before

she leaves. The problem arose in performance when, at the culmination of the duet, the

audience applauded and the conductor held the orchestra until the applause had subsided.

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The result was that the singers were now forced to improvise the staging so that Lakme

could still see her father while in the arms of Gerald but still saving the kiss for the end.

Had the conductor informed the director that customarily there is a thunderous applause

at that point in the score, some other staging could have been devised.

What a director needs to remember is that the conductor is also a performing artist

and should be treated as such. Just as singers often reprise performances of certain roles,

conductors reprise their performances as well. To negate this experience is egotistic.

Realizing the limitations of the operatic stage is another element that a director

must learn to accept and embrace. The orchestra's presence invariable encroaches on the

fourth wall. In The Impresario, rather than ignore them, every effort was made to

recognize that there was an orchestra in the pit with the conductor as another character.

The fact that the orchestra never receives the recognition that it rightfully deserves is a

sort of travesty.

Otto Klemperer explains: "Opera is in my view a unified organism in which the

orchestra and the stage must be in precise accord. As, however, it is in the first place a

musical art, in so far as everything should flow from the music, I consider that the

conductor is artistically justified in also taking charge of what happens on the stage."

(Harries, 1986) In performance, the director's hands are tied. There is a point where the

director must let go of the artistic reigns and hand them over to the conductor.

Developing the trust to be able to do so is the core of the director/conductor collaborative

relationship.

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COLLABORATION

Set Design

Let's face it; a certain standard of spectacle has come to be expected with opera.

Extravagant sets, pyrotechnics and elephants all have their place there and patrons pay

good money to see them. Even with its high design budgets, scenic design must

ultimately serve the drama. As Brecht wrote, "Whatever does not further the narrative

harms it" which might lead some designers down the path to minimalism. (Goldovsky,

1968)

Unfortunately, stripping the set down to what is "essential" can alienate an

audience like nothing else. Jocelyn Herbert explains: "You can’t put just nothing on the

stage, because the stages are so big. Think of somebody sitting about a mile away up

there, with one little figure on stage. Personally, I think it would be marvelous if there

was nothing there, but the audience would feel cheated, they'd feel they hadn't got their

money's worth. Even at the Royal Court in the late fifties when I did Sergeant Musgrave's

Dance with minimal scenery, the lights went down and a voice behind me said, 'Oh Lord,

it's one of those.' I know exactly what she meant." (Harries, 1986)

As a general rule of thumb, minimalism and opera don't mix. Patrons cry out for

what they broadly call "realism." However, Jonathan Miller states: "There's no realism in

art. Even if you look at the so-called realism of Courbet, it's always a realism which is

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seen through an imagination. In the same way, a designer who works with realism does it

within the framework of the artificiality of a theatre." (Harries, 1986) Fiuthermore, what

many refer to as "realism" amounts to interior decorating and is expensive.

So, what does a director want from a scenic designer? Ronald Eyre says, "[the

designer is the person who must] help to create the world in which the work can live-can

be bom, live its course and die." (Harries, 1986) No matter how much directors try to

make opera "realistic," it simply is not. It is stylized and therefore, the scenery should

reflect the same kind of aesthetic as the opera. Not surprisingly, designers, like directors

and performers get type-cast. They are experts at different styles: baroque, renaissance,

minimalist, etc.. One can imagine the disastrous effect of combining a dark, stark piece

like Berg's Wozzeck with a designer who specializes in baroque architecture.

According to Gotz Friedrich, the scenic designer must, "create the artistic,

aesthetic environment in which the wonders, the miracle of the story-through-music

happens. The set has to build a special area-it cannot be the real world, or even a slice of

the world, it must always be a special world existing by itself, a microcosm. " (Harries,

1986) It must be a world where people do break into song and explore their deepest felt

emotions with two to three thousand people. As one can see, there is not one thing

realistic about that.

Furthermore, the visual aspect has done a great deal to harm the work of the set

designer. For instance, the rented set îox Lakme, which was universally despised for its

darkness and lack of spatial logic, did very little to suggest India. Stephanos Lazardis

explains: "There's so much television and film-people can get all that visual information

from there. When Puccini wrote Madama Butterfly, how many people had been to Japan?

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Everybody knows or has an idea of what Japan looks like today." (Harries, 1986)

Similarly, people know what India looks like and expect to find something that they can

latch onto that says, "This opera takes place in Victorian Raj, India." Now, if creating a

historical production, which can be the bane of any director and designer’s existence,

incorporating the lack of knowledge of the locale can open a whole world of possibilities.

Lakme is such a great example of the pitfalls of design work. One has to look at

the time in which the piece was composed and envision what its audience knew. The

style ofLakme is fanciful. It makes no pretense at being realistic—it is evocative. One of

my biggest complaints when I first encountered the opera was that it did not sound very

Indian to me. But, it certainly sounded exotic to a French audience in the mid-nineteenth

century. This fanciful, familiar yet exotic quality could easily have been translated into a

metaphor or design concept.

Fundamentally, Lakme is about the insurmountable barriers between people that

are create by religion, race and nationality. Numerous times during the production I felt

as though one of the characters encountered some sort o f psychological or cultural barrier

that prevented them from fulfilling their desires. I only wish that the designer would have

seen the same thing and created a physical barrier to symbolize and dramatize this.

For a director, creating these types of images is necessary for telling the tale. Therefore,

images and metaphors are the best tools a director has to communicate with a scenic

designer. As John Bury, Head of Design at the National Theatre so succinctly puts it:

"Always go for the minimum possible to create the image you need." (Harries, 1986)

When I collaborated with John Santangelo on L 'elisir d ’amore, I gave him some

sketches of what I had in mind. We talked about the concept of the opera as well as the

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location in which it would be set. Basically what I did was throw some ideas at him, told

him how many exits and entrances I needed and then let him loose. The results were far

better than I imagined. He articulated how expensive of realism could be and then offered

alternatives that could suggest what I wanted to convey. The fact that he mentioned

designers who I had heard of and was familiar with helped as well. The result was

something that was versatile, communicated and did so with the minimum possible to

create the image we needed.

Lighting

Because music and mood are so inexorably linked, lighting can play such a vital

part in making the inner life of the character exterior. According to John Bury, "The

scenery is light, light is what you see. You have to think of the design as all one thing-

the scenery's not there to be seen but to be lit you put the scenery in the areas where you

want something solid to stop the light, or reflect light. " (Harries, 1986)

While working on Lakme, the production staff universally disliked the first and

third act sets. Fortunately, because of the deft skill of the lighting designer, the set

became so unimportant that it was hardly noticeable. The set was the weakest member of

the team and the lighting was the superstar player who made up for it. What was clear to

me was that the designer had listened to the score for its drama. Like listening for

movement cues, the lighting designer listens for changes in light. In an interview F.

Mitchell Dana explains, "Here is a big build, here is a crescendo-there should be some

upswelling, some change in the light. Here we have a real ritard-we should be isolating

down on something." (Harries, 1986) This is the kind of analysis that a director loves.

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Additionally, because there are often unique factors in opera such as asides and

one person singing amidst a group, rising to the challenge requires a little technique. In

the theatre, especially in Shakespeare for example, there are many instances when

characters break the fourth wall and speak directly to the audience or soliloquize. This is

a little trickier on the operatic stage because singers spend such a great deal of time

looking forward at the conductor that it can be difficult to communicate an aside.

Furthermore, operatic characters often sing their thoughts while in the presence of

someone else who supposedly can not hear them. One way to communicate this is with

light. Spotlighting a performer or having them step into an area that denotes a personal

bubble is just one of many techniques that are somewhat more simply addressed without

the concern of looking at the conductor.

Ultimately, lighting can be a valuable tool or a director's worst enemy. What a

director wants in a lighting designer is someone who is extremely aware of tone, rhythm

and drama. The end result should be a design that makes an impact without bringing

attention to itself.

The Choreographer

The choreographer is a collaborator that a director will not necessarily have on

every opera. If it is a French opera, chances are there will be one. Dance can be a touchy

subject in opera. Some feel that it has no place in opera and others feel that it is a

contributory factor making it a more total art form. Nonetheless, ballet in opera is more

often than not superfluous to the central action. However, by working with a skilled

choreographer, they can create a kind of interpretive dance that can either forward the

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plot, foreshadow what is to come or at the very least comment on what has happened so

far.

As a stepping off point to collaboration, the director needs to find what the

imperative is for the dance. Sometimes it is ritualistic, other times it is ostensibly

entertainment for characters on stage and still other times it is accompanied by singing. In

any case, the director and choreographer need to have some sort of a game plan that they

can agree on as to what the ballet's purpose is. Once this is established, if the director is

not himself a choreographer, the best mle of thumb is to stay out o f the choreographer’s

way and let them create. The results often turn out to be better than what a director could

have imagined.

The Assistant Director

In the theatre, the role of the Assistant Director is rarely ever well-defined.

However, when one is employed, union regulations dictate certain areas of responsibility

for the AD. For instance, he is solely responsible for taking down and recording staging

for archival purposes. While stage managers will record exits and entrances, it is the AD

who is responsible for making a record of everything that happens on stage.

Furthermore, with large chorus or group scenes, this aspect of the job can become quite

stressful and extremely valuable for a director.

With a large chorus, name tags can assist the AD in charting exactly who stands

where and when they move. Additionally, the AD should try and leam everyone's names.

The advantage of this is that they can easily identify who might be out of place, and

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knowing their names helps to bridge the gap between viewing them as a group or a group

of individuals.

Assistant directors are also sometimes called upon to stand in for performers

while in rehearsal and they also sometimes are beneficial in working with

supernumeraries. Because he usually works with "group" performers i.e. the chorus and

supers, the AD sometimes is responsible for communicating director notes. Once in dress

rehearsals or technical rehearsals, the AD's chief responsibility is to take the director’s

notes. Unlike in the theatre, it is rare to have note sessions with the performers and

director, so the AD is frequently called upon to type up notes so that the director can meet

with performers individually.

As in the theatre, AD's are usually people that the director knows and trusts. The

best AD/director collaborations arise when the director can concentrate on the "big

picture" and let the AD focus on the minutiae. In any case, if a director and AD can agree

on what their areas of responsibility, the assistant director can be an invaluable member

of the production team.

Supertitles

Supertitles have become a standard feature in American opera houses. The

reasons are obvious-most operas are not performed in English. Their prevalence has

made opera much more accessible to audiences that might not normally have ever

developed and interest in the art form. However, supertitles can present a whole series of

problems for a director.

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In larger opera houses, sometimes there is a staff member whose responsibility is

to translate the libretto and transfer them to slides or a computer program. What the

director has to ensure is that the translation matches the stage action. During technical

rehearsals, a director is usually given the opportunity to suggest alternate translations or

different titles. However, some opera houses have no translator/titler position. In these

cases, opera houses buy existing slides from some other production. When this is the

case, the director can feel a bit restricted. What he can do is direct the opera with the

supertitles in mind. In other words, the director may have to study the supertitles in the

same way that he studies the libretto. Ultimately, the director must direct for his

audience, and if his audience is reading what is going on, then he must adjust to what

their reading.

Costumes

Costumes should be the means to an end rather than the end itself.

Fundamentally, costumes should be the tools for telling a story, but not the basis of

character. Designer Luciana Arrighi explains; "If you notice the costumes, you've done

a bad design; they should be part of the landscape."

Unless mounting a new production, chorus costumes are often rented from

companies who have done the opera on a previous occasion. When this is the case, a

technique employed by Seattle Opera can be quite beneficial to the imagination of the

director; taking polaroid pictures. Since the chorus is a permanent fixture at Seattle

Opera, the costume shop is at liberty to call choristers in for fittings and take their

pictures at the same time. The pictures are then forwarded to the director and designers

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so that they have a visual representation of colors and faces that can be used for staging

and design purposes.

As Janice Pullen explains, when designing costumes for choristers, she tries to

present sketches of a cross-section: "You'll select a small short man, a big fat man, a tall

good-looking man, and an unshapely man, a short plump girl with a big bust, a tall

elegant girl.. so the [director and designer] gets to see what the costumes look like on a

good range of chorus. You can make drawings of costumes on girls with swanlike necks

and endless arms, but you've got to see it on stage on a girl who's four foot ten with a

thirty-eight-inch bust."

Since period costumes are a fixture of the majority of opera productions, rehearsal

costumes and props can often assist the director and performers in envisioning how one

moves and negotiates the stage. Good designers like Sally Jacobs recognize that, "[the

performers] know better than anyone else what they're developing for this performance.

They may not understand spatial relationships and the theory of color and visual

phenomena the way I do, but they understand from the inside what is developing....They

have got tremendous responsibility on that stage—they've got to be listened to and they

have to feel right. Gwyneth Jones has to go on stage as Turandot and do this enormously

demanding role; and if the costume is dragging in the wrong way and she feels she

doesn't look the part, it's going to undermine the whole performance. It's not a question

of indulging them—it's serious, it has to be worked out." (Harries, 1986)

Once the concept is worked out, a talented designer should be left to their own

devices. Like other designers, they possess an expert knowledge of their field that a

director must respect. While pictures are often helpful, a costume designer who has the

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liberty to design what they want often will give a director more than he could have

imagined. As a general rule, the dn ector should suggest rather than dictate, but by the

same token, the designer must be open enough to adjust and change ideas if necessary.

In the case o f L'elisir d'amore at UNLV, Shahnaz Kahn designed costumes and

built when necessary. This typifies a healthy collaborative effort. As the director, I

suggested some things to her, showed her some pictiues after having done some

homework, and even gave her a copy of a movie set in that time period. The result was

that when she showed what she had pulled or sketches of her designs, I felt as though she

had read my mind and knew exactly what I was looking for (even though I did not). It is

as though establishing a fiameworic that the designer is left to fill eventually leads to

something that tells the story, pleases the director and satisfies the artistic needs o f the

designer.

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REHEARSAL

The Principal Singers

Unlike actors, operatic singers are usually expected to arrive at rehearsal already

knowing their part. However, unlike actors, operatic performers are not paid for rehearsal

(at least if they are represented by AGMA) and stage directors in the professional opera

rarely have anything to do with principal casting. Nevertheless, a director cannot come to

rehearsal unprepared.

Andrei Serban begs to differ: "The chemistry between the performers and myself

is not always the same. It's like an act of love-it doesn't always work. I never write down

a blocking at home. I never come what is called prepared.' Very often in that sense I

create a lot of panic in the stage management and administration and the singers-

everybody's in comers muttering, 'Does he know what he's doing?' because I don't really

do much at all at first. When I come, I look at the singers to see what they can do, and

then to see what is possible in the situation." (Harries, 1986)

The prevalence of the ensemble mentality of the theatre coupled with the desire to

collaborate with performers to create an organic whole are both noble endeavors. But

unlike in the theatre, operatic performers usually have a standard repertoire and have

performed the role several times before. Furthermore, the time allotted for opera

rehearsals are less than what usually occurs in the theatre. Because of the strain on the

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vocal instrument and the sheer cost of putting on an opera, major principal roles are often

double cast and fewer performances of a single opera occur.

These factors necessitate that a director have a rehearsal strategy as well as

several techniques at his disposal. AGMA dictates that singers can only rehearse a

specified number of hours per day. Because of this, many opera houses employ staff

members that do nothing but schedule rehearsals and ensure that the performers are there.

Nevertheless, at some point before rehearsals start, the director must sit down with a

calendar and figure out a game plan. As Jonathan Miller explains, "There's a strategy, but

the tactics are worked out on the floor. " (Harries, 1986)

According to Boris Goldovsky, there are basically four tactics or methods a

director can use to communicate his ideas and desires: (a) he can ask the performer to

accomplish a particular task; (b) he can sing and act out pieces of the role, thereby

demonstrating the relevant musical-dramatic connections; (c) he can have the score

played on the piano; and (d) he can physically manipulate the singers. (Goldovsky, 1968)

While these might seem obvious, some might think that opera is an extremely

stylized art form that require some vastly different fi-om the theatre. Graham Clark

explains: "People tend to think that opera is stylized, a stylized ritual that one has to go

through—if it has a musical framework, there is a stylized ritual—it's not true—and people

like Miller and Poutney and Ponelle have broken right away and pointed out that there

are as many different answers as there are in the straight theatre." (Harries, 1986)

One valuable technique that predominates in the theatre that is rarely

accomplished in opera is a table work session wherein the cast (and hopefully conductor)

read the libretto and investigate the characters' dramatic motivation. However, this can

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present complications as, more than likely, the libretto will be in a foreign language and

will not read very well as a work of drama. Another technique borrowed from film that

I'd like to attempt in the opera is the use of a story board. Obviously there are limitations

to this technique as there are not different camera angles or cuts that can be made.

However, I think that this graphic representation could be a valuable tool for

communicating with designers and performers.

As much as a director would like to pretend that he is directing actors, operatic

performers are first and foremost musicians. As such, there are limitations, according to

James Bowman: "Singers don't like being grabbed, or pushed around, because it upsets

the diaphragm. And the actor gives you far more on stage, the actor is really talking to

you at close quarters. Eyes are the secret; if you watch singers, they never look at each

other. It's partly because it's embarrassing, partly "Does my breath smell? Am I flat?'-so

many layers of inhibitions which actors don't have.' Singers suffer (if suffer is the word)

from 'the inhibition of the singing voice.' A third force to be considered all the time

perpetual throat-clearing and worries about whether the voice is working." (Harries,

1986)

Because of the physical demands placed on the modem opera singer, H. Wesley

Balk believes that the director is at least partially to blame for the premature decay of

operatic voices: "Physical tension of any kind in the body effects a subtle drag on the

voice— You put that drag on for ten years and you have an erosion. " (Harries, 1986)

One of the tools to help slow this erosion is the practice of "singing in." Once a singer has

learned not only the notes but also where they must be placed and where to breathe,

direction then becomes easier because both singer and director know what the performer

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can and can not do on any given piece of music. Matthew Epstein; "Any great singer you

talk to will tell you this-the singing in of a role is the crucial thing about this role.

Physically knowing how the voice has to function through the role-here comes the high

note, here comes the low note, here comes the long phrase-knowing how to do it, having

it thought through." (Harries, 1986)

Once the role is "sung in" the rest is pretty easy. What is not easy for some singers

is to act when they are not singing. Few singers are trained as actors and yet we expect

them to perform as if they were. Fortunately, because of the framework of music, giving

detailed stage directions can be as exact as "wipe your brow with the handkerchief on the

first beat in the second measure." (Harries, 1986)

However, and this can be a little uimerving, because principal roles are frequently

double or even triple cast, a director ends up giving a particular piece of stage direction

multiple times. One might think that singers would scrutinize the performance of

someone else playing the same role. The advantage in doing so is that one's own

performance becomes an amalgam o f collaboration between the director and conductor as

well as the fellow singer. Unfortunately, this is rarely the case. Some singers are of the

opinion that they have done a particular role many times and they received rave reviews

so why should they change it? Other singers feel that because they are not called to a

rehearsal where the other person singing the role is rehearsing, that there is no need for

them to be there. Of course, there are always exceptions. There is no one way to direct all

performers and have them perform it the same way. What a director must understand is

that each individual singer will hopefully bring their own personality and interpretation to

the role and no two performances will be the same. The best a director can hope for is to

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create a structure or framework wherein the performer can create.

The Chorus

In any opera production, the chorus may be a major artistic asset or a

director's biggest nightmare or both: nonetheless, it requires fastidious and expert

handling. How a director manages a large chorus is one of the chief aspects that

differentiates opera direction from that of musicals and plays. In professional American

opera companies, choruses are represented by AGMA (The American Guild o f Musical

Artists). In Seattle, the chorus consists of several different pools that can be drawn on as

needed: regular chorus, alternate chorus and auxiliary chorus.

The conductor commonly suggests to the resident chorus master or music

staff the distribution of choral voices-not merely the number of sopranos, tenors, etc. but

also how many soprano cigarette girls he wants in the first scene of Carmen and how

many gypsies in the second act, how many tenors will be soldiers or smugglers. A

director may be able to influence the conductor in a new production, but the two greatest

factors are the company's budget, i.e. how much money is set aside to pay the chorus, and

if it is a revival of a production, the number of extant costumes there are for particular

roles. In the end, the chorus master, knowing the singers best, usually casts the choral

parts. A director’s intervention is usually not advised as he may infuriate a chorus

member who, for example, has always sung first soprano and is now asked to sing second

soprano with the rest of the ladies on stage left.

Unlike the principal singers, choristers do not usually already know their

music at the commencement of the first rehearsal. It is the chorus master's responsibility

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to teach them the notes as they quite often have choral music from several different

operas occupying their minds at any given time. With some more complicated works, the

chorus master may have to work with choristers individually or in small groups. Such

was the case in Lakme. The second act curtain rises on a busy market scene with a

plethora of singing merchants, a detachment of British soldiers as well as three soloists: a

fortune teller, a jewelry salesman and a thief.

Perhaps the most beneficial thing a director can do to contribute to the

welfare of his chorus is to treat them as individuals. En masse, the chorus can be quite

intimidating. Martin Handley, Chorus Master at the English National Opera confirms:

"As far as one can tell, choruses are made up of very nice individuals, but stick them

together as a unit and they seem like a totally uncontrollable monster with no human

feelings whatsoever. If you start treating them as a unit, firstly they sense it and resent it,

secondly you get terribly paranoid." John Dexter, who makes great use of the chorus in

his staging, forcefully asserts, "The chorus should be at the heart of the opera house:

when the circulation isn't running, you're in trouble." (Harries 1986)

If the costumes are already built, a director may find it advantageous to have a

photograph of all the individually costumed choristers. These photos, as well as a stage

manager or assistant who knows all the chorus members, often can aid a director in

creating an identity for the chorister. One of the easiest ways to think of the choristers

individually is to give each of them a prop. By doing so, Mary Jo Soprano can become a

a lovely flower girl or Bobby Baritone can become the local barber and thus give them a

raison d'être on stage rather than just being there to sing.

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While a director may given diction notes to the chorus, especially if they

are singing in his native tongue, the task is usually the responsibility of the chorus

master or a language coach. Large opera companies sometimes have several

assistant chorus masters who may specialize in a particular language. However,

some languages that may be particularly difficult (Russian for example) require a

special language coach who teaches the chorus the music syllable by syllable. To

Peter Burian, Chorus Master at Covent Garden since 1984, articulation and

intelligibility are paramount in choral preparation: "The basis of choral-singing is

the clear delivery of the text-the right placing of consonants and vowels. A well-

defined final consonant in a word is both the key to the understanding of that

word-until it is closed, it will remain vague-and a spring board to the next."

(Harries, 1986)

For some unusual operas (as well as for many choristers) the music is

easier to learn in conjunction with stage direction. For instance, Phillip Glass's

Akhnaten, with its chorus singing hypnotic, monotonous rhythmic pulses, often as

variations of one note, with words in ancient Egyptian, Akkadian and Hebrew,

would be much easier for choristers to commit to memory in combination with

staging rehearsals.

In conclusion, it is always important for a stage director to acknowledge

and respect his chorus. While often a thankless, low-paying job, choral members

are the backbone of many operas like I'Elisir d'amore and Lakme. Since spectacle

and opera go hand in hand, and orderly management of a chorus is one of the

quickest ways to achieve this, the opera director needs to become accustomed to

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imagining the movement patterns of sometimes fifty to a hundred people. Once he

can do this, he will save the opera company loads of money in overtime and

engender a great feeling of community among the individual chorus members.

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21" CENTURY OPERA

One might wonder why opera continues to be so popular, especially in a city like

Seattle when it struggles to survive in a city like Las Vegas. Seattle values the arts in a

way that many other cities do not. For instance, a percentage of city sales tax is

specifically appropriated for the arts. The result is a thriving ballet, symphony, numerous

theatres and a well respected opera house. Moreover, according to Speight Jenkins,

Seattle has the boasts the largest opera attending populace per capita of any city in

America.

One of the possible reasons for this is the large number of new millionaires borne

out of the computer technology industry in and around Seattle. Because of this "new

money," Seattleites yearn for fresh and innovative opera. Seattle has built its reputation

on its ingenious productions of Wagner's Ring Cycle. As a result, operas like Lakme,

which are rarely performed, are a bit of a gamble.

In Seattle, most operas enjoy an eight performance run. However, this was not

the case with Lakme as Speight Jenkins felt that its rarity might put off all but the most

devote opera fans. In dress rehearsals, however, there was a buzz about adding an eighth

performance to allow the silver cast another performance. Unfortunately, after financial

analysis, Jenkins decided not to do so. What did happen was the opera played to sellout

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crowds for all of its seven performances and an additional one could have been

financially sound.

Speight Jenkins has an enviable rapport with his audience. After each

performance, he would stand in the lobby with a microphone and answer questions about

the production and the opera company. The level of his approachability engenders a

friendly feeling among subscribers—the backbone of any professional opera company.

The demographics of the subscriber base at Seattle opera is observably younger

than some larger, more established companies such as San Francisco Opera or The

Metropolitan Opera. However, in what appears to be an attempt to capture younger

audiences and keep the art form alive, both SF Opera and The Met commission new

operas on a yearly basis. Some such projects include an operatic realization o f The Great

Gatsby by the Met and SF Opera's commission o f A Streetcar Named Desire. These new

operas mark something significant: the emergence of an American art form. While opera

is well appreciated in the United States, most of it has an exotic foreign flavor.

As the theatre has evolved into a much more collaborative effort, the opera has

followed suit. It used to be that playwrights and composers worked in isolation and then

emerged with a completed work. Building on the theory that multiple minds are better

than one, the art of playwriting has developed into a workshop format. Opera

composition has mirrored the workshop idea wherein a composer, librettist, director and

singers collaborate on a new work with each of them giving input to composer and

librettist in each of their individual areas of expertise.

Perhaps this style of democratic creation could only have begun in America, and

the results of this type of creation are varied. John Adams Nixon in China and The

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Death o f Klinghojfer were both created in this fashion. And currently, SF Opera has

commissioned the creation of an operatic version of the hit novel and film Dead Man

Walking.

The future of opera is largely uncertain, but what is predictable is that melodies

will undoubtedly endiue. Most operatic compositions of the latter 20^ Century have

been experimental sojoiuns into the atonal. No one can say for certain if Phillip Glass's

Einstien on the Beach will be receiving reprisals a hundred years fi’ora now, but it is

fairly safe to assume that Bizet’s Carmen or Puccini's La Boheme will.

What is quite peculiar is the treatment opera has recently been receiving by

modem composers. A couple of developments have done much to engender interest in

opera among the young. The smash Broadway production of RENT, an updated version

o f Z,a Boheme addressed AIDS as well as a plethora of other topical issues. Similarly,

Elton John has composed a musical interpretation of Verdi's Aida. What these landmark

productions have done is fuse opera and musical theatre to create something new and

different.

As is the nature of art, it must constantly evolve and change to survive. As

demonstrated by the success of Mary Zimmerman's Metamorphosis, a dramatization of

Ovid's mythological tales, classical literature continues to speak to new generations. As

the Italian Camerata examined classical Greek and Roman literature through a

Renaissance Italian sensibility, re-examination through a modem sensibility might also

yield some rewarding ideas.

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The truth is that no one can predict the future of art. However, as long as it re­

invents itself and periodically returns to its roots, opera will grow and evolve well into

the 21" Century and beyond.

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PERFORMANCE

For most directors, opening night represents the end of an artistic journey. On

opening night, sometimes an energy exists that is unique to opera. Sir

Peter Hall describes: "Music, because it had no literal meaning, is immediately

emotional. Music immediately charges the proceedings with a sensuality and an

atmosphere which is much stronger than the spoken word." (Harries, 1986)

If the director is worth his salt, hopefully he will have tapped into this emotional

meaning and brought it to life. There comes a time when the director must let go of his

creation and let it live and eventually die. However, if the collaboration between director

and conductor has been an effective one, the director can take solace in the thought that

the conductor will watch over the production as if it were completely his own. Walter

Felsenstein: "During the performance, the conductor alone is that evenings producer,

responsible for the validity and comprehensibility of that evening's conception, and

mentor and friend of each of the creative performers." (Harries, 1986)

At the core of any type of direction, be it film or theatre or opera, is the creation

of illusion—a control of time and space for a desired effect. As much as a director might

want to control every single second of time on stage, have it filled and communicate,

there comes a realization that he can not do so. However, with the structure of music,

opera is the single art form where the most control over time and space can be

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accomplished. Peter Sellars notes, "I'm a very firm believer that every performance must

be different.... In every show I put in a series of random elements which means that

every night there will be a genuine chemical reaction.... After one acquires some craft, it

has to do with setting up a series of structures which every night intersect with each other

as slightly different points.... Music-drama is by definition present-tense, imrepeatable--

things happening at this moment between you and the people on-stage which will never

happen again—a priceless moment of time." (Harries, 1986)

Creating priceless moments of time, ones that flows into each other without

interruption, should be every director's goal. When done well, opera stands at the

pinnacle of what the human imagination is capable of, and it touches the human spirit like

no other form of art.

Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Goldovsky, Boris. Bringing Opera to Life. New York, NY. Meredith Corporation. 1968.

Harries, Merion and Susan Harries. Ooera Today. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press. 1986.

Hodge, Francis. Plav Directing. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 3"* ed. 1988.

Jenkins, Speight. What is Opera? http://www.seattleopera.org/Speight/ian98.shtml.

Mansouri, Lotfi. Lotfi Mansouri: an operatic life. Toronto, Ont, Canada: Mosaic Press. 1982.

Pogue, David and Scot Speck. Opera for Dummies. Foster City, CA: IDG Books Worldwide, Inc.. 1997.

Scherer, Barrymore Laurence. Bravo!: a guide to opera for the perplexed. New York, NY: The Penguin Group. 1997

Somerset-Ward, Richard. The Storv of Opera. New York, NY: Harry N Abrams, Inc.. 1998.

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. VITA

Graduate College University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Dean Frederick Lundquist

Local Address: 1350 E. Flamingo Rd. #544 Las Vegas, NV 89119

Home Address: 233 Menlo Park Ave. Ventura, CA 93004

Degrees: Associate of Arts, General Liberal Arts and Sciences, 1995 Ventura Community College

Bachelor of Arts, English, 1998 University of California, Berkeley

Special Honors and Awards: President, Alpha Gamma Sigma, California Honor Society Member, Golden Key National Honor Society Member, Phi Beta Kappa Member, University of California, Berkeley Honor Society Recipient, Mask and Dagger, Dept, of Dramatic Art, UC Berkeley Recipient, Meritorious Directing Award, American College Theatre Festival Representative, UNLV Graduate Student Association

Thesis Title: The Challenges of Opera Direction

Thesis Examination Committee: Chairperson, Dr. Julie Jensen, Professor, Ph.D. Committee Member, Davey Marlin-Jones, Associate Professor, A.T.F. Committee Member, Joe Aldridge, Associate Professor, M.A. Graduate Faculty Representative, Mark Thomsen, Associate Professor, M.M.

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Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.